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Notices of Japan, No. V1.
FEB.
even to this day a topic of admiration in Japan, where the highest eulogy for judg- ment and resolution that can be bestowed upon a woman, is to compare her to the wife of Chuya. Such qualities, it may be conjectured, had procured her the honor, contrary to Japanese custom, of being her husband's confidant.
The plans of government being thus foiled, even in their apparent success, the next orders were to arrest all the known friends of Chuya. Siosits avoided cap. ture by the usual form of suicide; but two of his friends, named Ikeyemon and Fachiyemon, were seized and interrogated. They promptly acknowledged their participation in a conspiracy which they esteemed honorable, but refused to betray a confederate. The destruction of Chuya's papers left no possible means of discovering the parties implicated, except the confession of one of the prisoners, and they were therefore subjected to tortures sickening to relate, but which must nevertheless be known, if we would justly appreciate either the firmness or the ferocity of the Japanese character.
Chuya, Ikeyemon, and Fachiyemon were, in the first instance, plastered all over with wet clay, then laid upon hot ashes, until the drying and contracting of the clay, rent and burst the flesh into innumerable wounds. Not one of them changed countenance, and Fachiyemon, taunting his tormentors like a Mohawk in the hands of hostile Cherokees, observed, "I have had a long journey, and this warming is good for my health; it will supple my joints, and render my limbs more active." The next form of torture tried was making an incision of about sight inches long in the back, into which melted copper was poured; and this cop. per, when it had cooled, was dug out again, tearing away the flesh that adhered to it. This likewise failed to conquer the fortitude of the victims: Fachiyemon af- fected to consider it a new-fashioned application of the mora, a Japanese mode of medical treatment by actual cautery; and Chuya thus replied to the judge. minister, who urged him to avoid further suffering by revealing his accomplices: "Scarcely had I completed my ninth year, when I resolved to avenge my father, and seize the throne. My courage you can no more shake than a wall of iron. I defy your ingenuity! Invent new tortures; my fortitude is proof against them!” The government now despaired of obtaining more victims than those they already held, and the day of execution was appointed. When it dawned, the death-doomed, amounting in number to thirty-four, were, conducted in procession through the streets of the town, headed by Chuya; his wife and mother, with Ikeyemon's wife, and four other women, closed the melancholy train. It may here be remarked, that, out of thirty-four prisoners, only three were tortured; pro. bably because the ringleaders only were supposed to possess the knowledge desir- ed; and Chuya's wife, who was manifestly in the secret of the names so keenly and ferociously sought, could, as a woman, give no available evidence, even if confession were extorted from her.
As the procession reached the place of execution, a man, bearing two gold-hilted swords broke through the encircling crowd, approached the minister of justice whose duty it was to superintend the work of death, and thus addressed him: "I am Sibata Zabrobe, the friend of Chuya and of Siosits. Living far remote, I have but lately heard of their discovered conspiracy, and immediately hastened to Yedo. Hitherto I have remained in concealment, hoping that the siogoun's clemency would pardon Chuya; but as he is now condemned to die, I am come to embrace him, and if need be, to suffer with him."" You are a worthy man,'
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